Apple rumoured to struggle with Apple Watch battery life problems

A new report citing people with knowledge of the Apple Watch‘s development suggests that Apple is struggling to solve a smartwatch battery life problem and failing to reach the original target it hoped to achieve.

Apple Watch Battery

The Apple Watch battery will apparently be very limited, providing around two to three days of juice in standby mode, four days in sleeping mode, and between 2.5 to 3.5 hours of active application use. Said to be falling short of initial targets of providing 19 hours of combined active and passive use, the battery life is not much better than that of a day’s use of many existing smartwatches, and simply displaying the watch face is enough to drain the battery in three hours.

The struggle to improve usage time is being blamed on the powerful processor and “high-quality Retina-class” display capable of updating at 60fps, the device houses, contributing to significant power drain according to sources. The unimpressive battery stamina figures could explain why battery life was never mentioned when the Cupertino company initially showed off the Apple Watch last September, as it remained a source of concern for Apple.

Apple Watch MagSafe Connector

In addition to battery life, the sources also revealed that the Apple Watch will run a stripped down version of iOS codenamed SkiHill, and hinted that the Apple Watch Edition may come with the stainless steel MagSage charger incorporated into a special watch box and charging dock. The device is currently on track to ship by the end of March, and will integrate with the iPhone via an iOS 8.2-based Companion app.

Kai-Li is a tech enthusiast with an in-depth knowledge of mobile technology, music technology and the entertainment industry. She hails from Taiwan and helps Tech Assimilate to erm... assimilate, all the latest tech news and trends from East Asia. Kai-Li Yang on Google+